Jordan Huie of the Overtimer here once again for the play-by-play of AEW Dark. Let’s not waste any time!
Tony Schiavone as always introduces us. Welcomes one of the members of the Spanish broadcast team on Dynamite, Dasha Gonzalez, she’ll be a co-host on AEW Dark going forward. Runs down the card for tonight.
As Shawn Spears get his usual dramatic entrance, we hear from Excalibur and guest commentator MJF! And MJF unsurprisingly still despises Spears.
Shawn Spears (w/ Tully Blanchard) vs. Michael Nakazawa
Nakazawa getting a chant of his own as the bell rings. Tie-up, Spears takes him into the corner, clean break surprisingly. Spears gets him into the corner again, grinds him for the length of the five count. Top wrist lock, Nakazawa reverses. Spears rolls through, traps the arm and leg, Octopus for just a moment but then just gets him with a snapmare. Spears quite pleased with himself. Waistlock, Nakazawa with the baby oil to slip free! Pop. Turns around, immediate shots from Spears who gets him into the corner. Spears has some oil on him now, does not appreciate it. Comes at him, Nakazawa sprays the canvas and Spears slips! Nakazawa douses in some more of it, slipping senton! For a 1 count.
Tully yells at him, Nakazawa sprays the apron, Tully tries to come up but slips right back to the floor! Spears bails, Nakazawa with a double axe handle off the apron. Nakazawa starts to drag him into the ring, but Shawn Spears back suplexes Nakazawa onto the apron! Back in the ring, Spears targets the lower back now, drilling him with shots. Springing stomp. Spears stomps onto Nakazawa’s hand, does a mocking gyration. Chops Nakazawa into the ropes. Chop in the corner, seemingly to the throat, whip to the opposite corner, pendulum backbreaker for a 2 count. Single leg boston crab locked in.
Knife edge chops continue. Nakazawa struggles up, Spears goes forehead-to-forehead. Trade of forearms, Nakazawa wins out! Big elbow strikes, Spears bails. Tully commands he go back in, only for Spears to eat an inside cradle for a nearfall. Ducks a clothesline, gets a spear, Excalibur notes the American football background of Nakazawa, pin for 2! Spears leaves the ring, Nakazawa pursues only for Spears to get right back in, Tully gets into Nakazawa’s face, Spears slips out to clothesline him to the back of the head! Takes him into the ring, charges, Nakazawa counters with a Samoan Drop! And now he’s pulling off the thong from under his trunks! Got the thong around his hand! Charges, Spears kicks the thonged hand, Slingshot Jackhammer and that’s that!
Winner: Shawn Spears
Decent stuff, Spears needed to get back on the winning track for certain.
Now, an interesting one here, as Mercedes Martinez and Big Swole return from the All Out Casino Royale! Very curious to see if they’ll be sticking around…
Mercedes Martinez & Big Swole vs. Sadie Gibbs & Allie
Sadie and Swole starting us off. Swole with a wristlock, Sadie rolls out, reverses into a hammerlock. Swole reverses but Sadie with a quick snapmare into a headlock. Sadie hits the ropes, shoulder block but Swole stays upright! Can’t get taken down from a second but the third does the trick! Leap frogs, Sadie muscles her up for a powerslam, Martinez breaks up the pin. Swole gets Gibbs up, tag to Mercedes. Chops her into the corner. Martinez drags her to the middle, uppercuts. Sadie gets her onto her shoulders, Mercedes slips out, shoots her to the ropes, dropkick, but Allie tagged in. Gets some shots, running crossbody! Senton for a 2 count.
Tag to Gibbs, tag team wheelbarrow splash, nearfall. Sadie knocks her into the corner, whip, charging back elbow, standing back handspring into a headscissors. Sadie wants a scoop slam, Mercedes escapes behind her, rolls-through into an inverted double leg, Curbstomp! Allie breaks the count. tag to Swole, double irish whip into an assisted powerbomb, double elbow drop, tag for a 2 count. Swole powers her into the corner, snapmare, cartwheel into a pump kick to the face for a nearfall! Swole with a guillotine and body scissors, wrenches it in until Gibbs powers out with a big vertical suplex!
Swole grabs the leg, but Gibbs shoves her off, simultag. Allie gets her opponents into both corners, charging shots in each. Allie wants a springing Tornado DDT but Mercedes counters into a spinebuster for a nearfall! Mercedes bullies her into a corner, tag to Swole who stomps her down. Snapmare, chinlock. Allie elbows her way up, wrist lock, into a Russian Legsweep! Crucifix, 2 count. Pump kick from Big Swole outta nowhere! Nearfall. Tag to Mercedes, double vertical suplex, and Mercedes holds on to turn it into the Three Amigos! And the third gets a biiiig stall! Almost a brainbuster at the end too, Gibbs has to break up the pin!
Fisherman’s Suplex, Allie counters with a cradle for a nearfall. Backstabber! Allie struggles her way up, charging back elbows. Another charge, but Mercedes gets the boot up, running knee to the head! Standing 10 count. Simultags, Gibbs pops Swole up and lets her crash. Samoan Drop, Mercedes comes from behind, Gibbs flips onto her feet off a back suplex attempt, shoots her to the ropes, wants a military press but Mercedes floats over, gets the High Angle Back Suplex! Allie in with an immediate spear though!
Allie with a charging sliding elbow to Swole. Takes her to the outside, batters her. But Mercedes off the apron with a cannonball senton wipes out both! Sadie hits the ropes in the ring, double handspring tope takes out everybody! Takes Swole into the ring, Cradle Shock but Mercedes breaks up the pin. Fisherman’s Buster, Allie in, ducks a clothesline, hoists her up on her shoulders, Running DVD! Swole charges her, Ripcord Discus Elbow! Mercedes wants another Fisherman’s Buster but Gibbs escapes, Front Slam. Goes up top, Big Swole cuts her off. Mercedes and Swole with a Powerbomb/Neckbreaker double team! Allie breaks up the pin. Nearing the time limit at this point. Mercedes up top, Swole wants a Romero Special but Allie puts a stop to it. Allie pursues Mercedes, Lucha Arm Drag takes her to the canvas! Swole up, charges right into a superkick! Sadie Gibbs up top, very nice moonsault, and that’s that.
Winners: Allie & Sadie Gibbs
Alright well, big portion of this division is very green and it showed, Sadie in particular has not been doing this very long at all. What seemed like a dozen pin break-ups which got very silly, and it’s impossible to ignore how blatantly edited this match was, jarring cuts at several points kind of exposing that stuff got taken out. But you gotta get meaningful reps in and this was certainly one. Lotta good flashes though, Gibbs is certainly an athlete, I think everyone here has plenty of talent but yeah. As a whole the division needs more experience.
Video on Britt Baker, says her career is not based around hurting people, just based around being the best she can be and win. Calls out Bea for not being as professional, says her first move in an AEW ring was drilling her in the back of her head with a stomp. Says it’s an unwritten rule in this business that when you hurt somebody badly you follow up and make sure they’re okay, but she got a call or text from everyone but Bea. Calls her a piece of sh*t, says the world knows what Bea is capable of but she wants to show everyone what Baker’s capable of doing to her. Wants Bea to envision herself in the ring, with her limbs entrapped, nowhere to go, as Baker’s hand is pressing so hard down on her mandibular nerve, the most excruciating pain she’s ever felt. She also wants her to keep in the back of her head that any point she can dislodge her mandible from her temporomandibular joints. She translates: that means she can rip her f*cking jaw off her face.
Britt Baker vs. Bea Priestley is official for the Buy-In.
Replay of the contract signing and the assault of Dustin Rhodes. They again talk up Cody’s announcement which will now take place tomorrow night.
And now, From Undesirable To Undeniable with Jimmy Havoc.
Cody notes that Havoc is amongst the first people AEW recruited and signed, with his video airing on one of the first Road To episodes. Asks the usual question. Havoc says he’s felt undesirable up to this point if you look at his twitter feed. Says ‘divisive’ is a kind word to say for him. There’s a lot of days he feels undesirable but he feels it drives him. There’s days where he wants to do better so people like him and days where he says f*ck you, says he got where he is being himself. Cody mentions the divisiveness, there’s an age old beauty in proving people wrong. Havoc says because of the way he looks and works, a lot of people said he’d never get anywhere but he’s been signed now, hasn’t he? Flips off the camera.
Cut to the two of them in the locker room, Cody says they got cut off by music playing in the background, testing for the show and such. Cody asks Havoc how he got over being undesirable. Havoc mentions his love of horror and filming horror movie stuff. When asked to define being undeniable, he again just flips off the camera, says f*ck you, I am good enough and I did get signed.
This leads us nicely into…
Jurassic Express (Marko Stunt & Jungleboy) vs. Jimmy Havoc & Joey Janela
Stunt puts on his Babysaurus mask on the way out. Havoc and Jungleboy start us out. Havoc gets him into the corner, clean break. Chant for “Jungleboy”. Havoc with a wristlock, Jungleboy rolls out and reverses. Havoc gets to the ropes. MJF says Havoc was actually trained by the same trainer of Zack Sabre Jr which I did not realize. Jungleboy with an arm drag, Havoc catches him with a headscissor. Havoc grabs the hair, has to break, reverses to a wristlock. Jungleboy rolls out, several kip-ups, grabs the ropes, flips into taking control of the top wristlock. Havoc just punches him in the face to break out, bites the arm to jeers.
Keeps biting as Janela is tagged in, doesn’t wanna bite himself. Jungleboy with a side headlock, tag to Marko Stunt, double axe handle off the top rope to the arm. Marko with a wristlock, Janela no sells. Stomp to the toe, doesn’t no sell that! Tag to Jungleboy, whips Janela to the ropes, knee lift from Jungleboy, Enziguri from Marko, Janela kicks out before a 1. Tag to Havoc, who again just gets a big shot in to lay him out. Whips him to the ropes, Jungleboy with an elegant dropkick. Blind tag to Marko, whip, Jungleboy with the trip into a dropkick from Marko, kickout at 1.
Quick tags, whip, Drop Toe Hold doesn’t take Havoc down but traps him for a running single leg dropkick from Jungleboy! Tag to Janela, hits the ropes, back body drop takes him to the apron, Janela hooks Jungleboy for a running shot from Havoc, but it misses and he waylays Janela, taking him to the floor. Running headscissors from Jungleboy takes Havoc to the outside! Jungleboy hangs on the ropes, Stunt goes between Jungleboy’s legs for the suicide dive to Havoc, Jungleboy with the Asai Moonsault to Janela! Takes him into the ring, elbow drop to the back, cover for 2. Tag to Marko, footstomp to the wrist of Janela. Floss! Havoc rushes in and knocks him to the mat, throws Jungleboy to the floor, big legdrop to Stunt. Uses the tag rope to strangle Stunt!
Snapmare, headlock. Elbows from Marko on the way up, Havoc with a hair pull to keep him from charging. Throws Marko into the post, tag to Janela, big deadlift German Suplex! Arm wringer, inverted cravate. Marko elbows out, Janela grabs him by the waistband, another German Suplex, Havoc pulls Stunt out of the ring and throws him into the barricade. Janela throws Marko into the ring, Jungleboy distracts the ref as Havoc pins, eventual kickout. Havoc bits at the ear of Marko! Marko trapped in the corner, but fights his way out, Havoc grabs him by the ankle, reverse enziguri ducked, Marko rolls through, tag to Jungleboy!
House of fire, running dropkick to Janela, deep arm drag to Havoc, Jungleboy with a bite to the fingers of Havoc! Havoc wants an arm drag, reversed! Big uppercut in the corner, PK with a flip! Cover, Janela in to break it up but Jungleboy evades and Janela lands on Havoc! Thrown to the outside, Jungleboy with a flipping Double Kneedrop, nearfall! Jungleboy chops him in the ropes, hits the ropes, Janela with a knee to the back, Havoc blasts him with a right. Janela tags in, Jungleboy escapes from a back suplex, Atomic Drop. Janela hollering in agony off of that! Finally turns and charged into an Inverted Atomic Drop! Double footstomps from Marko, escalates into one from Jungleboy!
FLOSSTOSS for a nearfall! Havoc breaks it up, Marko with a ton of punches until Havoc throws him to the floor! Jungleboy with big chops to both men, grabs a top wristlock, tries to spring, but Havoc catches him in powerslam position, Janela with a running kick to the head leading into the powerslam! Marko comes in, running knee to the head of Janela but Havoc destroys him with a Tiger Driver ’98! Jungleboy with a thrust kick to the head of Havoc! Jungleboy and Janela hit the ropes simultaneously, Janela nails the rebounding Jungleboy with a lariato! Tag to Havoc, Havoc wants the Acid Rainmaker, Jungleboy ducks it, takes him to the corner, Stunt with the WWE Headkick. Marko tags in, up top, Jungleboy wants him up for a powerbomb. Havoc escapes, pushes him out of the ring, Stunt with a crossbody but Havoc catches him into a Michinoku Driver for a narrow nearfall!
Havoc out of the ring, grabs his staplegun! But Janela tags in before he can use it, tries to discourage him. Havoc hands him the staplegun instead and urges him to use it. Janela decides to staple his forehead instead! Janela superkicks Jungleboy, brainbuster! Goes up top, Stunt stops him with a high kick. Janela gets Stunt up, SUPER PACKAGE PILEDRIVER! That is sure as hell that!
Winners: Jimmy Havoc & Joey Janela
Havoc is bleeding from the staple as he gets back into the ring, obviously unhappy with Joey. Throws the staplegun away and just leaves as Janela celebrates.
Afterwards we see Tully Blanchard confronting Janela backstage. Tully distracts him as Spears attacks him from behind! They aren’t happy with Janela disrespecting Tully before. Spears uses pincers to pry Janela’s mouth open and they take his cigarette, tells him “Smoking is bad for you” as he seems to take it into his mouth! Tully moves the camera away as we hear Janela’s blood-curdling howls.